HCA: Hermit Crab Association

[quote="SojMad"]Is it possible that hermit crabs mate underground?

LOL! You tell us!!

Wow, that's interesting to hear.

I know (on the old nature documentaries) male fiddler crabs do take their mates underground when the tides come. And the Christmas Island Red Land Crabs do so supposedly as well...so it may be the case here. It may explain how your 1-3-years-captive crabs may have been able breed and subsequently lay eggs without you previously suspecting.

Mama Crabs wrote: LOL! You tell us!!

MudCrabDude wrote:Wow, that's interesting to hear.

I know (on the old nature documentaries) male fiddler crabs do take their mates underground when the tides come. And the Christmas Island Red Land Crabs do so supposedly as well...so it may be the case here. It may explain how your 1-3-years-captive crabs may have been able breed and subsequently lay eggs without you previously suspecting.

Wow, thanks for the information! Then they've probably mated! It would make sense too, they get a lot more privacy in an underground cave.

Does anyone know at all how long hermit crabs are pregnant? And is it normal for them to mate just after she's hatched her previous eggs? Well, okay, it probably is if they have, but does anyone know anything more about it? What would happen if she would go down to molt soon? Will she lose the sperm? (I know other animals does)
(I've had the ruggie female for about 1½ year and the male slightly shorter, but both of them have molted 2-3 times.)

I just want to tell you all that they are still alive. I check them at least once every hour, and change most of their water at least 3-4 times a day. And I still haven't gotten any answers from THCP, so I hope they see my email soon.

This is how I keep them for now:


And here are some of them just a few minues ago. (Okay, I know, they look the same, but they are so CUTE and TINY and AMAZING! )

Wow. This is still so amazing.

I have found phytoplankton in one of the pet stores, so now I have some proper food to them! I've also bought sea salt, since I've used up all the salt I had in all water changes I've done for the little ones.

The next hard part after just keeping them alive will be when they are ready for land and need tiny shells

You are doing a great job!! I am so excited! I've been telling everybody who will listen about this.

If they make it to the stage of needing teeny tiny shells, I bet everyone on this board will be looking for shells for you.

samurai_crab wrote:The next hard part after just keeping them alive will be when they are ready for land and need tiny shells

Yeah, that will probably be a problem. I have to find tiny shells, that's for sure. Does anyone know really HOW tiny they are when they walk up on land? This is the tiniest hermit crab I've found on picture so far (scroll down a bit): http://www.squidoo.com/hermit-crab-gifts

wolfnipplechips wrote:You are doing a great job!! I am so excited! I've been telling everybody who will listen about this.

Thank you! I'm also excited, but now I'm constantly anxious too. It would have been one thing if they had died immediately, but since they are still alive, they have given me hope and I've gotten really attached to them.. :roll: I will be so sad and disappointed if they don't make it, but I still know how small the chances of them surviving are. (I am really trying hard to think realistic )

piccolo41099 wrote:If they make it to the stage of needing teeny tiny shells, I bet everyone on this board will be looking for shells for you.

Haha, that would be so nice of you, because I think that shells that small are pretty hard to find here - though I really don't know, I have to take a good look around. Here in Sweden it is hard enough finding a regular medium-sized turbo though. :roll: But if they would get to that stage, it's still several months away, so I have a lot of time to look around. For now, I'm just so focused on repeatedly changing their water like every other hour, and feed them (and being worried of overfeeding them) that any needs of shells for these little guys feels completely unreal.

Here's a paper on how compressus larvae were raised in a lab. It details the different stages and the time-frame, so even though it's not the same species it should give you an idea of what to expect. (They took already egg-laden females from the wild though.)

http://si-pddr.si.edu/dspace/bitstream/ ... Harvey.pdf

That crab is TINY!!!!!!

This is so AMAZING!

now I'm going to be checking my hermits water bowls more in dept now.... lol!! please keep us updated!! i will now be watching this thread! hehehehe

wodesorel wrote:Here's a paper on how compressus larvae were raised in a lab. It details the different stages and the time-frame, so even though it's not the same species it should give you an idea of what to expect. (They took already egg-laden females from the wild though.)

http://si-pddr.si.edu/dspace/bitstream/ ... Harvey.pdf

Thank you! Wow, that was a lot of text. xD I am way too tired to read all of that tonight, but i read the beginnig, and they fed the zoeae with newly hatched Artemia nauplii. Should I feed mine with that? (Yikes, I know NOTHING about Artemia) So phytoplankton isn't everything they need?